Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this advanced reader's copy and the opportunity to read this early. Review has been posted on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Really enjoyed this book. The characters were really interesting, and I just really loved watching them grow and witnessing the journey that they went on. I found myself connecting with the characters very quickly and just absolutely loved watching their romance and love for each other blossom as the book continued. Kevin Van Whye has done a brilliant job of creating characters that could quite easily walk off of the page. With such powerful characters, it’s no wonder that the book made me feel very emotional while I was reading it. We definitely need more books like this within the LGBTQIA section of the reading world.

Thank you to the publisher for my eARC copy of this book. Unfortunately I didn’t love this book and therefore didn’t finish, I just didn’t connect with this one. Not for me, sorry.

Loved loved loved!

It didn't take long for Bryson's charm and Kai's cuteness to reel me in and then I rattled through their highs, lows and all that was inbetween.

A really sweet romance reminiscent of Simon vs... or Red, White and Royal Blue. Can totally see this as a Netflix film before too long.

Date Me, Bryson Keller started off as a very fun YA romcom, Kai is your typical self-deprecating high school teen with quite an average life until he suddenly asks out Bryson Keller, a supposedly straight guy who’s been dared to date anyone who asks him to for a whole week. I loved reading about Bryson and Kai’s friendship and how it blossomed into something more, however the bi erasure really disappointed me, there was such a focus on how Bryson was either gay or straight without even a mention of other possible sexualities. The first half of this novel gave me such good vibes that I was surprised by the ugly turn the plot took in the second half, bullying, homophobia and outings wasn’t how I thought this novel would end. I definitely enjoyed most of this novel but the first half set me up for a cute queer romcom not a painful high school experience.

Date Me, Bryson Keller is a fun, diverse read, that I can recommend to anyone who just wants to have a good time. Even though the story takes place over quite a short time, the development of the relationship doesn't feel rushed and even natural. I enjoyed the banter and the friendships and it felt realistic all the way through.
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Catching up with reviews that have caught up with me.
I wasn't able to finish this arc in the time I had it however from what I did read this was fantastic, and I really do want to get round to purchasing my own copy in the future!
Thank you to Netgalley for sending me a free copy to review.

It was a fun and cute read that reminded me all old romcom with a heartfelt romance. But I don't know what to think about all the drama surrounding it.

Date Me Bryson Keller is really cute and such a feel good story, but not in an unrealistic way; the story deals with serious issues like homophobia, racism and interracial relationships, religion, etc. I appreciate the way the author emphasises that whilst we have come a long way when it comes to LGBTQ+ acceptance, there is still a very long way to go and that many people still are not safe to be open about who they are. There are some wonderful and very funny supporting characters in this book and I hope there's a Bryson out there for every Kai and vice versa.

A lovely, sweet LGBTQ+ romance, perfect for fans of other books in the genre, like Simon vs... and Heartstopper, etc. I love a good coming out story, and it's nice for young people to have this kind of literature to read to help them come to terms with their sexuality. Triggers for homophobia, outing and bullying, but otherwise, a lovely read.

Let’s be clear, this is not the pinnacle of LGBT+ YA fiction. It’s amateur hour for sure. I had to overlook a lot of authorial choices in order to proceed, and often it felt that there was an endgame in mind but no understanding of how to navigate towards it. I mean, obviously there was an endgame, the whole plot and outcome was given away within the prologue and whilst that might have worked for Romeo and Juliet, it doesn’t fly here.

For the first three quarters of the book, we’re mostly just coasting through with rose tinted sunglasses having a grand old time. As soon as you hit 76% though, we spin out of control and it kind of becomes irredeemable. It’s this poor narrative structure that led me to feel anxious for almost the entire duration of my reading experience. Conflicts are a necessary part of fictional narratives, and it’s important that they’re interwoven well so that the pace of the text can be set. Here, there’s very little build up towards a conflict, and most importantly there’s only the build-up for one incident. The others all came out of left field and without pause. We’re hit with incident after incident which absolutely decimate Kai. It’s completely unforgiving, and unrealistic.

If I were a teen again and reading this, it would not fill me any sort of confidence around coming out. It would potentially further exacerbate my fears around being outed or disowned. These subjects shouldn’t be thrown about and resolved within pages; they’re traumatic events. Young people need to be reassured that yes, their fears may be real, but love and support is available to them. This may not be through their family, but through teachers, friends, and found families. Kai doesn’t have an established support system, and so it’s dangerous to have him exposed to these situations.

I would have had a more favourable response to the inclusion of these situations had resources been provided at the end of the book. Young people deserve to be provided with access to information that can help them cope if they are in similar situations; there’s no magical resolutions for them, and it’s dangerous to suggest that parents just need a day or two to come around and that schools will offer the perfect response to the situation. Having young people believe that can easily lead to them blaming themselves for any abusive situations that they may face.

This rush to have conflict and resolution indicated that the author wanted to complete the book and guarantee a sequel. They needed to have a surface level resolution so that the next book has an immediate framework to jump into.

The supporting cast of characters were flat and acted as window dressing to Bryson and Kai who themselves were devoid of personality. Here, the reliance is on the reader to fill the characters in and ride the wave of the fake dating trope. We can all imagine a jock and a loner and bring them to life, it’s not a big ask.

As a final problematic point, Kai never once considers that Bryson could identify outside of the gay/straight binary. The word bisexual is only brought up once, and it’s just in passing as Bryson is essentially grilled on how he identifies. Representation in YA books is essential. Be better.

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My review aside, it seems that the plot for this text has been lifted from a manga called Seven Days. Not cool.

After reading two big books back to back (the angsty Midnight Sun and the balls to the walls sci-fi thriller To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini) I really wanted something a bit shorter and something fun, something cute, something contemporary, which is weird for me as I am not normally a contemporary type of guy. I'm here for fantasy and complete and utter make believe. But this book is totally what the doctor ordered and I fell head over heels in love with it! Honestly, this book is ADORABLE!

Bryson Keller is dared at a party to date the first person that asks him out every Monday at school, for one whole week. After that they are to go their separate ways and someone else has to take their place. Everyone knows about the dare. It has its own hashtag, girls queue up to get the opportunity to be Bryson's girlfriend for the week, and why wouldn't they? Handsome. Athletic. Popular. Bryson is everything the girls want. But after a disastrous morning, and with the dare affecting him, Kai decides that he wants to take a pop at the whole thing and asks Bryson out. I mean, no one said it was just girls that could ask, right? For the next five days, Bryson is his. He's the first person that Kai has come out to (not counting his ex-best friend who did a one-eighty on him after he came out...) and he's shocked by the reception he gets. But Bryson is just being the good guy that he is, right? He's straight. Of course he is... Isn't he?

Honestly this book felt like a warm hug, apart from the moments when everything just goes wrong and even then it felt like a safe space. It made me laugh, it made my heart swell, it made me cry. Oh it made me cry, alright! Yikes. This book gave me all of the emotions and I cannot recommend it enough. The characters were all great, both Bryson and Kai themselves who were different to your standard jock/nerd pairing. Bryson isn't just a meathead like most jocks are portrayed to be. He has heart, he's kind and gentle and super-swoonworthy. Kai wants to be a writer but he isn't your stereotypical nerd. He's not too bad at sports. He has other interests. Bryson is the kind of guy you can see yourself falling for, just the little things he does, you can't help it. And Kai is the kind of guy that you feel for. You want him to have everything good in the world. And then there is the supporting cast. Kai's family were a particular highlight in particular his younger sister, Yazz. Bryson's mum and his sister. Kai's best friends Donny and Priya were great. Even the bad guys, or as they are often referred to, assholes. The sort of characters you just know from the off are horrible people.

My only problem with the book is that when I got to the end I wanted more! More, more more. I turned the page and was actually sad that it was over. Hopefully we get a sequel one day. There was so much left unresolved. The book spans just 2 weeks and there are so many questions I want answered. I need to know!

It was nice to see an own voices coming out story. The market is getting better but it still too overly saturated with the straight white female offerings which can be good but sometimes feel slightly fetishised. So it was nice to feel like you were in good hands, someone who knows exactly what they are talking about. Their lived experience. More of this please! Coming out is hard. As someone who has been there and done that, I know.

The only reason this got a 4 and not a 5 was just that in some places it felt a little clunky and awkward, which I get in parts was due to Kai being awkward anyway, but it sometimes drew me out of the story a little bit. Sometimes the dialogue was a little too clunky and I'm not a fan of when someone is called by their full name ALL the TIME. Bryson Keller. Bryson Keller. Bryson Keller. It gave me slight flashbacks to reading The Fault In Our Stars when we were subjected to Hazel Grace Hazel Grace Hazel Grace every five seconds. We get that that is your name. Your first name will do. But that was a very small problem just one that got on my nerves slightly. But still, I adore this book and demand that you read it now. It's fun, cute, SUPER cute! I cannot recommend it enough!

DNF. I couldn't connect with this book at all and found the storyline and characters to be just dull. It's a shame as I really wanted to like this book!

Date Me, Bryson Keller was just the perfect swoon worthy, heart warming romance that I needed to get me out of my reading slump! It obviously tackles important themes and problems (and it does it well) but aside from that it is just such a good love story!

Thank you for the review copy!

I went into this excited to read a cute queer ya contemporary featuring a biracial protagonist. I wanted so badly to enjoy this but unfortunately it just didn’t really deliver.

I found the the writing was very clunky and the dialogue so laboured. It really didn’t feel like something which would come out of a teens mouth most of the time.

Also I felt like beyond Kai, the other characters were entirely two dimensional. They felt almost like caricatures who were merely written into the story to move the plot or to allow a particular point to be made.

Probably the thing that frustrated me the most about this story was the lack of communication. It really irritated me that Kai wouldn’t just ask Bryson if he liked boys. Look I get that that lack of communication in order to move a plot and create tension is a trope for a reason. Yes it does happen in real life. Unfortunately I, however, have reached the point that I have read so many books that centre around this that I’m sick of seeing it. A book needs to be really phenomenal in other ways for this not to ruin the book for me or they at least need to do something new with it. This book unfortunately did not.

I think it’s really important that we get more #ownvoices queer YA romances with protagonists of colour written by authors of colour but unfortunately this one just didn’t hold up because of the overall quality of the writing.

*arc recieved via netgalley

This book has instantly became a favourite. Read entirely in one sitting, this book had me laughing, crying, and almost rereading it immediately after finishing. Perfect for fans of Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda.

I started reading a little tentatively as the basic premise is the same as the Seven Days manga, but the more I read the more I saw the differences between them until I found myself sobbing and cheering on Kai and Bryson full-heartedly.

While I found the writing to be a bit clunky, this isn't a book that shied away from the heavy stuff, and it was while dealing with the heavier aspects of the narrative, including trigger warnings for homophobia and forced outing, that the story really shone.

There were a few minor loose ends, so I wonder if this book was written with a sequel in mind, but the absolute wholesomeness of the romance brought it home, and made me so glad I persisted through the slower beginning.

I have reviewed this book as part of my June Reading Wrap Up on my YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/EeHywG9jLmg

It has also featured in a book haul: https://youtu.be/qfHiiOeGHwQ

Thank you!

I was pre-approved for this book on Netgalley, and as it sounded super adorable I just had to read it! I was a little skeptical when I found out it was based on a yaoi manga, as yaoi is written for teen girls who fetishize gay men and is usually super problematic. I read some yaoi and watched the anime adaptations when I was around 14, and looking back on it now it was pretty problematic, and I pretty much avoid yaoi like the plague now (if you want manga or anime with good gay rep I recommend Given and Yuri on Ice). However, as the book is own voices I thought I’d try to put my thoughts on the book's roots aside and give it a chance!

The book follows Kai, a boy in his senior year of high school who is still in the closet. Kai is witness to a dare given to his classmate Bryson, who has agreed to date someone new for a week for the rest of his senior year. If at any point he breaks up with someone early or no one asks him out, the dare is over and he must ride the school bus for the rest of the year instead of driving his snazzy white jeep. The plot is somewhat silly but I found it completely adorable. A lot of this book is just straight up fluff and I loved it!

The relationship between Kai and Bryson developed naturally, and although the whole book happens over the course of two weeks, nothing felt rushed. The boys feelings for each other grow over the course of the book, but there are no proclamations of love, which I adored as I hate instalove. I feel like you need to get to know a person for an extended period of time before you can truly be in love with them, so I loved that there were no ‘I love yous’ and both boys wanted to take the relationship slowly.

Something I loved was that Bryson never labeled himself. He has feelings for Kai, but he is still figuring things out and isn’t sure which label fits him. I feel like we put too much pressure on young people to label themselves when they’re still figuring everything out. I actually went through a few labels before finding one that felt right, and honestly, I wish I hadn’t felt so pressured to choose one as a teen. I feel like we need more characters like Bryson so teens know it’s ok to not have everything figured out yet. Teens should be free to come to terms with their sexuality on their own rather than feeling pressured to accept a label that doesn’t feel right.

Even though I knew it was a coming out story, I was disappointed with how it was executed. As the romance was adorable fluff I was hoping the rest of the book would go the same way, and Kai would have a positive coming out experience. I was disappointed when Kai’s religious mum reacted negatively and made Kai feel horrible. So many YA coming out stories have the characters go through a bad experience, and I feel like this could put LGBT+ teens in a negative mindset. Having to read about a character who is like you have a bad coming out experience over and over again can easily make you believe the same thing will happen to you. The sad thing is that these negative experiences happen, but if that’s all they ever see in books and the media, they will assume the same thing will happen to them and be reluctant to come out.

Another thing I didn’t like was that Kai was outed against his will, and was forced to come out first to his family and then to his whole school. It felt like this was added just to create some drama, and I honestly hated it. Kai was bullied both verbally and physically, and I felt like it just wasn’t needed. There is absolutely nothing wrong with writing a cute fluff romance just because, and sometimes that’s exactly what LGBT+ teens need rather than the constant reminder that some people hate them for something they can’t control. The outing and bullying is the one thing that stopped me giving the book a 5 star review as I was hoping to get away from this negativity for a while!

Even though I had issues with the book and it didn’t turn out to be the escapism I was looking for, it did give an overall good message about the importance of accepting those who are different from you, and I loved the first 75% of the book. It was just a shame that the adorable romance I thought I was reading had to take a dark turn. I would definitely recommend this book, but it’s probably best to avoid it if you’re not in the right headspace for darker subjects like homophobia and bullying.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

This book... was like a warm hug? Like truly so very adorable.

First of all, the premise is so unique and I really appreciated that. It isn't fake-dating, I was cheated of that, but it was super fun. The dialogue was SO FUNNY OMG! I laughed so hard. It gets an A+ for banter. And I really loved all of our main characters.

The relationship dynamics were all super well written. The romance was of course super adorable. I loved how healthy it was, especially Bryson who is my sweet son who must be protected at all costs.

Also very much appreciated that this author was South African, we love to see it, especially some of the slang.

And I mean, this book got me MAD toward the end, I had A LOT of emotions. Trigger warning for being outed btw. And I AM READY TO FIGHT THEM, HOMOPHOBES. Truly my fists are out. Oof I was so upset.

Overall, I just really appreciated it. I thought that all the discussions it had were so valid and important, although I wish they could've been incorporated more seamlessly. And the writing was nothing special, was a bit plain. And I would also have liked bisexuality to be discussed more. It was left out which... nope.

But it was sweet and I could just get lost in it for hours.